Japanese Steel Industry

Japanese Steel Industry is one of the top most steel producing nations in the whole world. In the year 2000, its ranking was second which slid down after India made a brisk and powerful entry into the foray. The Japanese Steel Industry has seen both the highs as well as lows. In the recent years it has shown increased output of steel. The planned investment of capital has reached the highest level after the historic economic slow down of Japan (which started from the late 1980s and continued till the start of the new millennium). After this, the Japanese economy has posted a GDP growth (in real terms) of 2.2 %. It has been observed that the growth in the Japanese Steel Industry has a positive relationship with that of the economy. The record book shows that the production of crude steel in the year has increased at a rate of 3.3 % at a year-on-year basis. Thus, the level of production in the year 2006 has reached an amount of 116.23 MT which is the third highest in the history of Japan in terms of steel production. The quarterly production growth figures of Japanese Steel Industry shows that steel’s rate of growth of production increased at an increasing rate with the passing of every quarter. In the first two quarters of 2006, the growth rate hovered around one percent but in the third and fourth quarter it accelerated to 4.5 % and 8.1 % respectively.

Demand for steel was domestically generated mainly by three industries, namely

• Automobile and associated industries
• Industry that is dedicated in building machineries required in the industrial sector
• Shipbuilding industries

Statistics of the year 2006 reveal that the orders received by the Japanese Steel Industry has increased by 3.2 % on y-o-y basis. This financial year has also seen a growth in export of steel which accounts to almost eight percent. The major foreign consumers of Japanese Steel Industry are

• South Korea
• China
• Thailand
• Taiwan